Absa makes its own rules

[Shake&Bake]

Two members of Afriforum Youth were kicked out of Loftus stadium during a rugby game on Saturday for displaying a banner with the words 'Sies Absa, ons eis meriete', the civil rights organisation said.

“The security guards who kicked out the students said that all are prohibited from saying anything against Absa who is the main sponsor of SA Rugby,” said national chairman of Afriforum youth Ernst Roets.

The members who were kicked out are Roets and Ian Cameron, a member of the management of AfriForum Youth.

“ (We) told the security guards that this action is a violation of their constitutional rights to which the guards replied with the words 'Your rights do not apply here. Absa makes its own rules'.”

In September reports surfaced that Absa, sponsor of the Currie Cup, had expressed concern over a lack of transformation in rugby.

This caused Afriforum to launch a “Stop Absa Quotas” campaign, with many people threatening to close their Absa bank accounts.

Absa responded with deputy chief executive Louis von Zeuner saying: “We have never said a team should include a certain number of players of colour.”

Afriforum continued with it's campaign “to stop Absa’s political interference in SA rugby”.

Roets said approximately 5 000 posters with the words 'Sies Absa!', 'Absa, ons eis meriete!' (Absa, we demand merit) and 'Haal politiek uit rugby!' (Keep politics out of rugby) were given by AfriForum Youth to spectators at today's game.

The posters were confiscated.

“We were treated disrespectfully and were insulted and our tickets were confiscated. We did not disrupt the rugby in any way. We simply exercised our constitutional rights by taking a stand for what we believe in.”

Roets demands an apology from Absa and wants a refund of their tickets. - Sapa

From IOL

Who knows if what the guards were saying is true?
But they certainly had to act on someone's instruction.
ABSA's move to ask for transformation in rugby is BS.
This incident is further BS.
Their raping of their clients is BS and that's why I moved away from the Big 4 Banks in the country.

I hope these members of Afriforum are compensated and ABSA are brought to book on this.

 

[Milano]

Politics is a tough business, hey ABSA? Maybe you should stick to banking?

 

[Centaur]

From IOL

Who knows if what the guards were saying is true?
But they certainly had to act on someone's instruction.
ABSA's move to ask for transformation in rugby is BS.
This incident is further BS.
Their raping of their clients is BS and that's why I moved away from the Big 4 Banks in the country.

I hope these members of Afriforum are compensated and ABSA are brought to book on this.

To what bank did you move?

Politics is a tough business, hey ABSA? Maybe you should stick to banking?

Well they also suck in banking.

ABSA is an extremely expensive bank that no longer listens to their customers, it's good that the public are responding to these crap services. I think this is only the start, it will become more present when people realize they can get more for what they pay.

 

[Shake&Bake]

I moved to Capitec and saved myself R400 in transactional charges per month.

 

[markings]

How can anyone expect that they can go into a 'house' and then badmouth the person who pays for it, even just partly? This is just stupididty.
I say, good for ABSA and thei quotas, as long as the quota is slanted towards the demographics of rugby and not just the overall demographics of the country.
The problem with quotas is 2-fold, they are usually too small, and they are not dynamic. In combination these 2 factors result in a loss of the developmental force which quotas are supposed to provide. The way they are implemented becomes counter productive because a static quota results in a clogged pipeline very quickly while allowing the teams to pretend that they fulfill their conditions or obligations.

 

[Shake&Bake]

How can anyone expect that they can go into a 'house' and then badmouth the person who pays for it, even just partly? This is just stupididty.

The blerry house is filled and funded by the people that walk into it.
Censorship should not be tolerated - end of story!
ABSA has already shown it's disregard for it's customers over the years, now it also goes ahead and takes on any man on the street.
Screw them - their house, se voet.
Next time I'm at Newlands, I'll be there with posters and banners, bad-mouthing ABSA.
I'd like to see someone trying to talk kuk to me about it.

 

[jacoh]

From IOL

Who knows if what the guards were saying is true?
But they certainly had to act on someone's instruction.
ABSA's move to ask for transformation in rugby is BS.
This incident is further BS.
Their raping of their clients is BS and that's why I moved away from the Big 4 Banks in the country.

I hope these members of Afriforum are compensated and ABSA are brought to book on this.

What should ABSA apologize for. They weren't even there to defend them self. Ask the security cards for an apology and the management of the Blue Bulls.

 

[Merrel]

This was exactly what Afriforum wanted to happen. Mission accomplished.

If they never got asked to leave, nobody would be reading about this in the newspapers today, this thread would never have started and the 30'000 people at Loftus would have already forgotten about the silly people in green overalls waving banners in front of their face while they tried to watch rugby.

They wanted to get chucked out and run to the newspapers. And that is what they achieved.
There are two sides to this story and I'm sure they were asked to leave because somebody(fans) complained about harrasment.

I was at Loftus and they were really irritating. Stopping and trying to to give you posters you don't want and then going on a parade around the stadium blocking people's view of the field with their banners.

Only two of them got asked to leave anyway. The other 20 or so remained in the stadium.

Edit: I have already forgotten about them until I saw this thread again.

 

[midnightcaller]

Like it or not this country has to transform.
Like it or not this country WILL transform.

 

[APoc184]

I was sitting in the media box when they marched into the stadium.

According to the other people in the media box they were asked to stop obstructing people's views but two were defiant and continued.
They were then asked to leave and were escorted out.

In defence of the Blue Bulls management and security. I've seen many fans asked to stop waving their flags and banners in front of other fans. Purely because it causes friction. There are at least two or three altercations at each game because of similar stuff.

And I highly doubt 20 remained in the stadium. I spotted a maximum of 10 people during the whole thing.

Not sure what they did after the other left. I watched the rugby and enjoyed it.